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(Model.)

R. GREBNER, ART 0I" MANUFACTURING OVERSOGKS.

Patente-d July 7,188.5...

IJV'VEJVTOR Atto UNITED STATES PATnT Enron.

RICHARD GREENEB, OF NEW ALBANY, INDIANA, ASSIGN OR OF ONE-HALF A TO W. A. HEDDEN, OF SAME PLACE.

ART OF MANUFACTURING OVERSOCKS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 321,811, dated July '7, 1885.

Application tiled May 2l, 1884. (Model.)

To @ZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, RICHARD GREENER, a citizen of the United States, residing at New Albany, inthe county of Floyd and State of 5 Indiana, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in the Art of Manufacturing Oversocks, of which the following is a specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawings.

Usually socks are formed of a straight piece of webbing having a bulgefheel formed thereon, or having a heel formed in afterward,and thus necessitating the formation of an instep in oversocks by shaping them in, which shape I 5 is easily lost on the sock becoming wet.

The object of my invention is to overcome this difficulty, as well as the further one that oversocks made of knit goods, after being fulled,lose all or nearly all their elasticity, and

2o hence shaped instepsare almost invariably too small. These objects are accomplished in the manner hereinafter set forth, reference being had to the annexed drawings,in which- Figure 1 represents an elevation of the sock, the parts involved in the various steps of the construction being separated; and Fig. 2, a rear view of the heel portion, showing the parts separated.

A represents the leg of the sock,made of one piece of webbing in any known way down to the point indicated by the dotted line. From thence downward the web is knit into two fla-ps, B, the back of each of which is rounded, as shown at C, to form the heel B, representing the line of division of the two iaps at the eXtreme rear and bottoni of the heel.

At the front each of the flaps is narrowed, as shown at D, and then continued downward, as at E. The two flaps are then joined at 4o the rear and bottom, forming the complete heel. The edges D E are picked onto the nee dles of thc knitting-machine, and the foot F is then knit on, and during the process is gradually rounded or narrowed down at G corresponding to the natural shape of the foot,and when finished the sock has an instepped foot projecting from it at right angles,or nearly so.

Any approved mode of fulling and preparing the crude sock for use may be employed.

It will be readily seen that, as the instep is knit in shape it cannot get out of shape by wetting or otherwise, and also will not draw on that part of the foot when being worn. It will also be seen that the formation of a sock of usual construction, the leg and foot being made of a straight or nearly straight piece of webbing, does not allow an instep except by the process of shaping before mentioned, the disadvantages of which were heretofore set forth.

Having described the device, what I claim 1s- The herein-described art or method of man ufacturing over socks or stockings, consisting, first, in forming a leg in any approved way, then forming a heel of two iiaps each narrowed inward from the front for a portion of its length and rounded at the back or rear, then joining the two flaps at the rear and bottom, then picking the unjoined edges on the needles of the machine, then forming the foot by gradually knitting it rounding and narrowing at the instep, whereby the finished sock corresponds in the shape and position of its parts to those of a natural foot, substalr tially as and for the purpose specified.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

RICHARD GREENER.

Witnesses:

F. B. KNowLToN, J. H. GEYER. 

